XP - The World According to Monsanto

[aurora]

In case anybody is interested in a book discussion on The World According to Monsanto, I posted a thread over in CE&P because we often discuss Monsanto there.  You can find it at pandce.proboards.com/thread/152365/world-monsanto.  I'm happy to discuss it here, too, with anybody who is interested. 


ETA - here's the text of what I posted at CE&P:

Has anybody read The World According to Monsanto by Marie-Monique Robin?  See link. 
I got it on a cheap Kindle deal a while back but started reading it
just last week.  I'm 3/4 of the way through and there are a lot of
things I've heard before about Roundup and GMOs, but I didn't know the
company was so involved in Agent Orange and rGBH.  The writing is
extremely biased and I haven't looked for any independent sources to
verify the claims, but apparently it won an award in 2011 from the NY
public library.  I'm curious to hear what any of you might think who
know more than I do on the topic.

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[moreace01]

Hi -
I have not read it, but am interested in picking it up.

Oddly enough, I'm re-reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and the passage I read today was about Monsanto. To be fair, I don't know enough about them (other than they are the devil - lol...sorta). I've read things about the company suing small farmers(and won apparently) for growing crops that became hybrids of their seeds because...the wind carries seeds...and there isn't much you can do about it.

I've also read that the majority of seeds you can purchase as a home gardener are modified in some way mainly due to Monsanto but won't be labeled that way. Unsure how that all works out...and no, I don't have a source for that. I swear I read it just yesterday though because I'm trying to grow my first ever garden this year and am curious about heirloom seeds.

I just finished Tomatoland and of course, Monsanto is mentioned. It's hard to mention agriculture without mentioning their name because of the grip they have on the industry.

I did not know about their involvement with Agent Orange - which I had always believed was Dow Chemical? So is Dow Chemical now Monsanto?

Anyway...I will look into picking this up to read more. Thanks for the rec!

[aurora]

I think that Monsanto suing small farmers just because the GMO seeds blow into their fields by the wind is pretty well-established fact by now, and absolutely atrocious. It's also a terrible indictment of our patent system that set up the legal framework for such a thing to occur.

I was also sad to learn recently that it's pretty hard to get seeds that are not genetically modified anymore; it's not something that was on my radar.

As for Agent Orange, that's one of the items I picked up solely from The World According to Monsanto, but a quick Google search seems to indicate that it was produced by several companies including Dow Chemical and Monsanto. I guess Business Week is a reasonably reputable source, and this article

www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-01-25/monsanto-settlement-with-w-dot-va-dot-residents-approved

indicates that Monsanto recently settled a lawsuit related to pollution from their production of the chemical. It actually started out as a chemical company before it got into agriculture (as a way to increase sales of its prize product, Roundup).

I have not read Tomatoland but will have to look it up.

[whitepicketfence]

I'd really like to read this. I've read The Omnivore's Dilemna and have watched Food, Inc. but I know very little about Monsanto aside from what was mentioned there.